


Rodimus Prime and the Moon Cat

by timeless_alice



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Light Angst, Not Beta Read
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2018-02-04
Packaged: 2019-03-13 08:19:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13566573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/timeless_alice/pseuds/timeless_alice
Summary: Everything's gone wrong for Rodimus, and while a small cat won't solve his problems, she'll help for a little while.Takes place after Lost Light 13, with some vague canon divergence.





	Rodimus Prime and the Moon Cat

**Author's Note:**

> A present I wrote for my friend Kepler :0 This is kind of a sequel to "Shreddicus Maximus the Moon Cat" but all you need to know from it is that the moon crew own a small robot kitten named Shreddicus Maximus, or Gus

After losing track of the Lost Light, the plan of “regroup and discuss” on Luna-1 seemed like a good idea. In their still shrinking ship, the displaced Lost Lighters managed to stumble their way to Fortress Maximus’ base of operations. But being there just brought memories of failure to Rodimus: the hot spot that had failed to reignite under his touch, the destruction of his half of the the Matrix. He ignored Fortress Maximus’ greeting, too tired on both a physical and emotional level to handle the interaction, leaving explanations up to Ultra Magnus.

As the others got situated, and introductions were made, Rodimus slipped away to find some corner of the base to be alone in. To think. To find new and creative reasons that this whole situation was his fault, right down to the Lost Light launching in the first place. What was he even thinking, why did he think this would be any different.

His spark ached and not in its usual way; it ached on a deep emotional level, coiling through his systems, winding everything tight. He burned, and not in his usual way. Or maybe it was his usual way, since his outlier ability of fire didn’t seem different than the burning shame that tended to linger in his circuits, though at least he could control his bursts of flame.

Traveling through the halls of the surprisingly large base, avoiding rooms linked to Tyrest and all his schemes, Rodimus’ thoughts chased each other in circles. They twisted, spiraling every downward, dragging him deeper into the darkest he never seemed that far from. His arms wrapped around himself, in a display of vulnerability he would never allow himself around the others. His shoulders hunched, shrinking in on himself, as if to concentrate all his negative energy into a more confined space. The base was so vast, so empty, and he was so small, and everything was just too much.

Once determining that he was far enough from the others, but not far enough to be hopelessly lost, Rodimus slipped into a room that didn’t seem to be in use, beyond storing a few odds and ends. He stood still, for a moment considering just screaming, pouring all his frustration into a single prolonged vocalization for some catharsis. But that would risk the possibility of the others hearing, and asking if he was okay, and he wouldn’t deal with that at the moment. So, he tucked the urge away to indulge in on another day when there were less people around, and opted instead to sit in a corner. He curled in on himself, into a loose ball, resting his wrists on his knees and bowing his head. His teeth ground together, metal grinding and groaning under the pressure weighing down on him in all senses.

Rodimus did not know how long he sat there, time lost as he stewed in everything that had gone wrong. The mounting stress and all the mistakes and all the little things, piling on each other from millions of years. From his forging to the present. It was the same as it always was, it was his fault and maybe the ship was better off without him. He just brought destruction and misery, and things would only get worse the longer he was around.

His thoughts were broken by the room’s door opening with a soft woosh. Rodimus considered, briefly, shouting for the other to leave him alone, but instead remained silent, too drained to say anything at all. He didn’t even look up, and guessed from the silence that whoever was there was judging him in this pathetic state. But then, above the roar of his cooling fans desperately trying to cool his body - hot, even by his standards - he was able to hear a soft clicking noise. Not the heavy footsteps of Luna-1’s inhabitants or his crew, but something more akin to Ravage. Light, and with potential to be stealthy given the small bit of effort.

Rodimus finally found the wellspring of strength within himself to look up, and he was greeted by the sight of a small cat picking her way towards him. Her tail was held high, tip twitching. As she drew near he felt the desire to push her away, demand that she leave him be, but the more sensible part of him won out and he reminded himself that she wasn’t at any fault and he had no reason to be cruel to her. So he just watched, as she crept ever closer, then nudged at his arm with her nose to give her a better opening to crawl into his lap. He found himself lifting his elbow to give her room, and she gladly accepted his invitation.

In the space between his knees and his chest, the cat sat, staring at him with large green eyes, almost too big for her small head. A purr began in her chest, and she let out a rumbling meow before rising a little to butt her head against his arm once again. Rodimus, without really thinking, moved his hand to stroke between her ears, then trailed his fingers along her back. Her purr deepened, and her eyes narrowed.

“Where did you come from,” he asked in a soft voice, half expecting a proper answer. But of course, she was just a cat without the proper vocalizer to form the right sounds. Instead, she began to knead at the softer plating at his abdomen, near his hips.

They sat like that for a while, with the cat at some point stopping her movement to curl up and fall into a light nap. In that time, Rodimus body unwound, ever so slightly, and his systems cooled to a level approaching normal for him. He focused his ability into his hands, controlled as to not hurt her with excessive heat, and gently stroked her with this artificial warmth. She pressed against him, content with this change.

There was something calming in this, in being confronted with something simple that existed outside of his own problems and would not care for them. He did not say anything to her, not about his problems, even in the broadest sense. There was something of a mental block, one that he had difficulty getting over, prohibiting him from that kind of honesty. But this was nice.

After a while, Rodimus heard heavy footsteps in the distance. Someone approaching, one of the bigger ‘bots in the group, from the sound of it.

“Gus!” Max’s voice called out, from somewhere down the hall. The cat’s ears twitched and she opened her eyes to slits, but she did not pick up her head and soon settled back into her nap.

“Is that your name?” Rodimus asked, running a finger under her chin, reigniting her purr that had been dwindling down. “Gus?”

Again, she made no reply, only shifting her weight and stretching out her paws before tucking them back under her chest.

It wasn’t long before the room’s door opened once again, this time with Max standing in its entrance. The two ‘bots shared sheepish expressions, and Rodimus rather pointedly stroked the cat along her back, from ears to base of her tail. She finally lifted her head, eyes blinking online and ears twitching. Turning her head, she meowed loudly at Max, who smiled broadly at her, though the expression dropped back to mild embarrassment when his attention turned back to Rodimus.

“I see you’ve met Gus,” he said.

“Is that who she is?” Rodimus scooped her off his lap, sliding back into his devil-may-care persona, and looked into her eyes. She pressed a paw against his nose, tail swinging slowly, lazily, as she dangled from his hands. “So you aren’t some stray that just happened to be wandering around?”

“Yeah she- she’s ours. I was hoping to find her before Magnus did, because I think he’d have a conniption if he just saw her wandering around.” Max tilted his head to the side, a small frown taking shape on his face. “Are you alright? Magnus made it sound like you’ve been through hell and back.” He gestured at Gus. “And she’s pretty good at telling when someone’s upset.”

“Me? Oh, I’m fine,” Rodimus said, an easy, familiar lie to tell. He stood up, and placed Gus on the ground, where she made figure eights around his legs. “I think she just liked me because I’m warm.”

Max gave him a look that said he didn’t believe him, but wasn’t going to push the issue. Instead of saying something to Rodimus, he made a soft clicking sound in Gus’ direction. She paused in her circling, staring at Max for a few seconds, before trotting over to him with her tail held high. She stood on her back legs, planting her paws on his leg, before he leaned over to pick her up. In his large, point one percenter hand, she was extra small. “I think some introductions are in order. You going to rejoin us?” He ran a hand over her head, pressing her ears back until they bounced back forward.

Rodimus watched them for a long moment, head titled to the side as he thought. Time to keep up appearances, he supposed, and he felt a little bit better. “Yeah, sure.” He shrugged, and followed them out of the room to rejoin the rest of the crew.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm timelessmulder on tumblr if you wanna go bother me there :0


End file.
